Rhiannon Giddens, whose new album, Freedom Highway, is due February 24, joins the cast of the television show Nashville as it returns for its fifth season tonight at 9 PM ET tonight, making its debut on CMT. Giddens plays the role of Hanna Lee "Hallie" Jordan, a young social worker with "the voice of an angel." Nashville airs Thursday nights on CMT; episodes will be available to stream on Hulu on Fridays.

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau were guests on CBS This Morning Saturday. They stopped gave a Saturday Sessions performance of three songs from their forthcoming debut duo album, Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau: Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's Alright," Elliott Smith's "Independence Day," and Thile and Mehldau's own "The Old Shade Tree." The selection reflects the mix of covers and original songs on the new double album, which is due January 27. You can watch the performances here.

Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau were featured on PBS NewsHour yesterday, the day they were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for their debut duo album, Nearness. The longtime friends, collaborators, and Nonesuch label mates spoke with NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown about making music together, or, as the show says, "how a passion for improvisation can make beautiful music." You can watch the interview and a performance of the album track "Old West" from the show here.

Chris Thile, the new host of the public radio show A Prairie Home Companion and duo partner of label mate Brad Mehldau on a just-announced forthcoming album, was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night. He sat in with Jon Batiste & Stay Human throughout the show and was accompanied by them in a performance of "My Oh My," a song from the 2015 Punch Brothers album The Phosphorescent Blues. You can watch that performance here. Also on the show were Eddie Redmayne, Alton Brown, and Bernie Sanders.

Conor Oberst was the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC last night. He was joined by bassist Miwi La Lupa to perform two songs—"Gossamer Thin" and "Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out"—from his new solo album, Ruminations, released earlier this month. You can watch the performance here. Obert resumes his Ruminations tour in his hometown of Omaha on November 3. 

Rhiannon Giddens joined a stellar line-up to perform at the ceremony awarding Bill Murray the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at The Kennedy Center last weekend. The ceremony—which also features Aziz Ansari, Roy Blount Jr., Jane Curtin, Bill Hader, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Brian Doyle Murray, Paul Shaffer, Emma Stone, and Sigourney Weaver—will be broadcast on PBS stations across the US this Friday night at 9/8c. You can watch Giddens sing of a certain celebrated jumping frog from the evening here.

Chris Thile spoke with PBS NewsHour about his new role as host of A Prairie Home Companion. "I’m obsessed with the good things that people make to give to one another," Thile says. "This show is a place, has been one of America’s most consistent sources of good things for 40 years. And I feel like it’s imperative that it continue." Mike Olson of Lake Street Dive, which was a musical guest on Thile's first show as host, tells PBS: "The desire to have a vinyl record and the desire to listen to a variety show and these kinds of things goes beyond nostalgia. And that’s a very visceral experience. And there’s something I think directly transferable to a show like this." Watch the piece here.

Robert Plant returns to the Austin City Limits stage for the first time in more than a decade when his set airs on PBS stations across the US this weekend. The full-hour set, which he and his band the Sensational Space Shifters taped on tour in March, includes songs from his 2014 Nonesuch debut album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, Led Zeppelin favorites, and tunes from Plant's earlier solo album, like "In the Mood"; you can watch that performance below. Plant joins Emmylou Harris and others on the Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees tour tomorrow, October 12, through October 21.

Rhiannon Giddens will make her Austin City Limits debut this weekend. The set, premiering on PBS stations across this US this Saturday, October 8, includes songs from her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. She also performs "Spanish Mary," from The New Basement Tapes, which you can watch here. "The breadth of musical vision on Tomorrow is My Turn incorporates gospel, jazz, blues and country, plus a hint of proto-rock and roll," says Austin City Limits, "and Giddens displays an emotional range to match her dazzling vocal prowess throughout."

The legendary Brazilian singers, songwriters, and guitarists Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil will perform at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro at the Maracanã Stadium this Friday, August 5. The ceremony will be broadcast around the world and can be seen in the US on NBC starting at 7:30 PM ET. Nonesuch released a live two-disc recording from Veloso and Gil—Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música: Multishow Live—earlier this year, celebrating a lifelong friendship over the half-century careers of two artists who hold key roles in developing and keeping Brazilian popular music vibrant and alive around the world.

Lake Street Dive was on the Today show this morning, performing "Mistakes" from the band's Nonesuch debut album, Side Pony. You can watch the performance here. Another Side Pony song, "Call Off Your Dogs," was included on Public Radio's Top 10 Songs Of 2016 (So Far). "What a phenomenon Lake Street Dive is," writes World Cafe's David Dye. "It's the cohesion of all four band members that makes Lake Street Dive's newest album, Side Pony, unique." The band resumes its North American tour on August 3.

Tigran Hamasyan was among the winners at the ECHO Jazz 2016 Awards. He took part in the awards ceremony held at Kampnagel in Hamburg on May 26, which was broadcast on NDR, receiving his award for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Piano, for his album Mockroot and performing the album track "Lilac." You can watch the performance here. Among the other winners were James Farm, named International Ensemble of the Year for its album City Folk, and Brad Mehldau, who received a special prize for his box set 10 Years Solo Live.